


These Violent Delights

by Claire



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Gen, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Implied/Referenced Torture
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-06
Updated: 2016-03-06
Packaged: 2018-05-25 02:48:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,948
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6177163
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Claire/pseuds/Claire
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Leia is there when he disembarks from the ship, head held high and a sneer on his face, like the shackles around his wrists mean nothing.</p>
<p>~</p>
<p>Based on an tfa_kink meme prompt: Someone, not from the Resistance, tortures Poe horribly (First Order captivity, space pirates, whatever) A while later they're captured and everyone assumes Leia is going to hand the person over to whatever still counts as law enforcement. Leia hands them over to Poe's squadrons instead. Poe never finds out. (<a href="https://tfa-kink.dreamwidth.org/2821.html?thread=4597253#cmt4597253">x</a>)</p>
            </blockquote>





	These Violent Delights

**Author's Note:**

> Title from Shakespeare's _Romeo and Juliet_

Leia is there when he disembarks from the ship, head held high and a sneer on his face, like the shackles around his wrists mean nothing. He's been Force-bound, his connection to the swirls and eddies surrounding them cut off, and yet still he looks at them all like he could kill them with the crook of his finger.

It was a fluke that they had him, no one expected him to be on the First Order base they had hit. They'd expected nothing but a stormtrooper training ground, another base to raze to the ground in the in-and-out attacks they'd been carrying out since Starkiller Base exploded into the darkness.

But he had been there. And with the element of surprise on their side, he'd been brought back to D'Qar in chains.

He pauses when he sees her, no indication that she's anything more to him than a General of the Resistance, other than the soft curl of his lips.

And it pains her to admit that she still sees her son in his eyes. Sees the child that looked up at her in the middle of the night, sees the reflection of his father in them. But it's only the smallest part of him. The part almost entirely covered by the darkness within him, the darkness she tried so hard to deny.

She wonders if it was her, if it was Han. Wonders if it was anything they did that set their child down the same path her father walked. (Only, not her father, never her father. Where Luke could accept that, she never could. Because when she thinks of her father, she thinks of the summer nights on Aldaraan, when she looked at the stars and Bail Organa's voice told her of the stories behind the constellations. She thinks of the strong arms that picked her up when she fell, and of the way she'd crawl in to her parents' bed when she couldn't sleep, settling between them. When she thinks of Vader, she thinks of a monster behind a mask and a billion people silenced in one terrible act.)

His gaze slides off her easily, settling on the man by her side. And Leia doesn't need to look at Poe to feel the tension coming off him. She's grateful that Poe wasn't with them, grateful that he hasn't been cleared to fly yet. Not since last time. Not since Black One got brought down, and they lost Poe for too long, until he finally managed to escape. (She recalls the wave of relief that ran through the base when they'd realised that it really was Black One approaching, that it really was BB-8 requesting clearance to land. The relief hadn't lasted for long.)

Poe doesn't say anything as he turns and walks away, and Leia allows him that. Allows him the right to deny the man in front of him. Because Poe was silent for the longest time when he finally came back to them, and Leia refuses to force him to speak now. She watches as he leaves, and she thinks that, somewhere, Shara is watching her, just as Leia watches Poe. Watching her and cursing Leia for failing her son, for failing both their sons.

Because Leia sees Poe flinch when touched, when he's not expecting it. And then she sees him laugh it off with a smile that never reaches his eyes. And his pilots know, takes them barely a day to figure it out. Snap doesn't reach out and slap Poe on the back any more. Instead, he makes sure Poe can see him, telegraphs each move before it ever happens. The easy touches that went between Poe and his squadron seem have gone, vanished into the ether to be replaced by careful hands and fingers that reach out only to pull away before they connect.

She knows what happened to him, read the report from Kalonia. Because as much as she wanted to give him his privacy, to give Poe the dignity of coming to her of his own will, of telling her only as much as he wanted, she needed to know. And even though she told herself it was only because Poe is her best pilot, and she needed to know how long he would be grounded for, she knows it's more than that. Because she made the hands that caused every single mark on Poe's body, made the eyes that looked him over. And if Poe had to go through it, then Leia will as well. So she'd read the report, and took inside her every bruise, every burn, every cut. Took inside the broken bones and the bite marks and the violation of his body with the knowledge that her child did this, not because he had to or because he was forced, but because he wanted to.

When she turns back to the group in front of her, turns back to her son, he's not looking at her. His eyes are fixed on Poe, watching as he heads back into the base. And it sends a shudder through her to see the hunger in his eyes as he watches Poe, to see the way he licks at his lower lip as he realises that Poe still has a slight limp when he walks.

It's Karé who steps forward and breaks Leia's gaze. Karé who asks what they should do with the prisoner. And Leia can almost see her anticipating what the answer's going to be. They have cells, empty and dusty and at least half of them filled with spare parts for the X-Wings because there was nowhere else to store them. Cells that are set up to hold a Force user. (Because they learned. Maker, how they learned.)

They could, in theory, hold him there indefinitely. (And she'd get used to seeing her child from behind the static of a forcefield. Knowing that, at least, he wasn't out there.)

What she doesn't know is if she'd be able to look Poe in the eyes when she told him. Even if she told him that it was just temporary. That it was just until Luke got back from Ach-to. (And then what? Would Luke take him, try to bring him back to the Light. Would her brother ever trust her son as a Jedi again.) She could tell Poe that it was just until they could hand him over to stand trial for what he's done.

Only, the Republic is still pulling itself back together. Is still a shadow of its former self held together by the senators who hadn't been in the Hosnian system when Starkiller Base had fired for that one and only terrible time. They're scattered and depleted, and little more than a name banding the remaining members of the senate together while they try so hard to recover.

But even with all that, Leia knows what she should do. Her entire life has been shaped around the belief that one person should never have all of the power, that the rule of government should be just and true. And the tenants of the Sith, of those who would claim that name, go against everything Leia believes in. She should contact the Republic, tell them that they have Kylo Ren, tell them that he's waiting here for them to pick him up, to try him, to serve justice as they see fit.

And yet Leia still doesn't move. Doesn't head towards the control room to send a message out from D'Qar. Because it's about so much more than doing the just thing. It's about the way Poe struggled before he could even take a step without wincing in pain. It's about the way they nearly lost him twice, only the skill of Kalonia and her team keeping him with them. It's about the way BB-8 was the one who flew them back, the medical team having to almost peel Poe out of Black One when it landed. (She still thinks that it's something of a miracle that Poe managed to escape, given the state he was in when he finally returned to them. But maybe she shouldn't be surprised, maybe she should know that any child of Shara Bey and Kes Dameron would have the same fire in his veins that they did.)

But mostly, it's about the way Poe can still barely meet her eyes, like he doesn't want to remind her that her son was the one who did this. And Leia knows what she has to do.

She looks at Karé and nods. Because she heard the unspoken question in Karé's voice, can see it in the way Jessika is clenching her fist, and the way Snap has that look on his face that Leia has only ever seen there once before.

Karé's eyes widen for a brief second before she schools her features, the soft "Yes, ma'am--" saying a hundred other things that Karé doesn't need to voice.

She looks at their prisoner, clad in black and surrounded by a dozen pilots, all of whom call Poe their friend, as well as their Commander. And she sees it in his eyes when he realises, sees the smirk on his lips, like he hadn't expected anything else.

She knows what she's leaving him to when she turns and walks away. And part of her says she should be horrified with herself, for leaving her child in the hands of people who have every intention of ensuring he never walks away from where they're going to take him. But the rest of her knows that Ben is truly gone, that her son isn't coming back. That even if Luke managed to get Anakin back from Vader, they won't get Ben back from Kylo Ren. Because the last time she asked someone to try that, the Millennium Falcon came back without its pilot, and they buried an empty coffin with Han Solo's name on it.

The door slides closed behind her, blocking out the sounds from outside. Not that they'll stay on the landing pads. There are other places on D'Qar far more suited for what they have planned. And when they come back, there'll be one less person with them. And Leia knows they'll never talk about it, that what's about to happen will never be spoken of. Instead, they'll keep it inside of themselves. They'll keep it inside of themselves so Poe doesn't have to.

Karé won't tell her of how fists met flesh, blooming their anger into blues and purples. Snap won't tell her that the footprints he left mirrored the ones that took so long to heal on Poe. Iolo won't tell her how easy it is to break someone's bones. Jessika won't tell her how the knife she keeps in her flight suit opened skin so easily, dripping red onto the forest floor. And two squadrons will keep their silence.

They won't tell her of her child's final resting place, because he's not her child, not any more. She knows where Ben Solo died, she doesn't need to know the same of Kylo Ren.

And when it's over, when it's finally over, she'll watch as Poe slowly starts to reach out again. She'll smile when Snap touches his shoulder and Poe doesn't flinch away, when Karé leans over him and he doesn't hold his breath. She'll feel her heart pound when he goes up for his first mission, and feel it settle again when Black One lands, followed by the others who went with him.

Poe will heal, and Ren will never hurt anyone again. And Leia finds herself accepting that it's a fair exchange.


End file.
